Disclaimer: All characters belong to Marvel. Nothing but the story is my own.

Chapter 1 - Hljóð

It had been almost a year since New York. In fact, it had been 11 months, 2 weeks and 5 days since New York, 11 months, 2 weeks and 5 days of silence and Tony didn't like it one bit. He was not Hawkeye, who saw everything in the silence, who noticed and planned and understood in the quiet shadows. Tony understood noise and thrived on the loudness of life, his ultimate focus came in the midst of chaos. This…absence of noise…it unnerved and unsettled him.

He looked out across the city from the top of Stark Tower, a cold glass of scotch in his hand his only tether to reality as he pondered about this silence, more a pause it seemed, a brief interlude, the inhale before the exhale, and Tony didn't know what terrified him more, that there was a silence at all, or what would eventually and inevitably fill it.

'Hey Hawk,' he called over his shoulder, 'Whaddya see?' A beat. Tony wasn't even sure if Hawkeye was actually there, but since they had all gone their own ways it was the master assassin who had returned to Stark Tower most frequently, although sometimes all Tony ever saw of him was crumpled bed sheets or, slightly worryingly, bloodied bandages in the trash. The times that he had seen him, though, their interactions had led to a deep trust and mutual respect that both Avengers had been a little surprised by. Sure enough, Barton dropped soundlessly to the ground from one of the beams high above Tony's head.

'Huh,' Tony remarked, 'thought you might be in a corner somewhere, crouching in the shadows.'

'I don't crouch in the shadows Stark,' he sighed wearily as though they'd had this conversation several times.

'Oh, sorry, I forgot,' Tony smirked, 'the shadows are deep within you, the lone wolf, the renegade, the bird of prey…'

Barton snorted , 'Yep, and sometimes I think you're under the impression the light shines out of your own ass instead of your chest. Also, I think I'm more of a unicorn than a lone wolf or bird of prey.' He deadpanned. Tony's mouth quirked as he played a drumroll on the ARC reactor over his heart and raised an eyebrow, 'Unicorn, huh? Better ask Romanoff about that one…'

Hawkeye gave him 'the look' and so he quickly moved on from that particular train of thought, ' So whaddya think Hawkass? You see things better than I do.'

Barton walked to touch the glass, regarding the city sprawled before him. A pause, a breath, a beat, a thought. 'I think there's a storm coming. It's there, on the horizon'.

Tony's head snapped back sharply to look at him, an eyebrow raised, 'Are we talking in metaphors here or are you telling me that you can even see storms forming in the sky, because I know SHIELD has insurance policies out on both your eyes but even that would be some serious –'

'I read the weather report dumbass, storm should hit New York by nightfall.'

'Oh.'

Clint continued as though he hadn't heard him, still looking out over the Hudson ghosting a hand across the glass, 'I know what's bothering you, though Stark. It's too quiet for you, you can hear yourself think now and though I'm sure you're very much enjoying hearing what you have to say to yourself, it's starting to make you nervous because there's no problem for you to fix and no solution for you to find. There's a void and you can't focus anymore because there's nowhere for your mind to go.'

'So what do you think?' Tony asked again, playing with his glass, ice cubes clinking against the sides of the tumbler as he swirled the amber liquid, unsettled by how clearly Hawkeye saw right through him.

'I think that there's a storm on the horizon, Mr Stark. It still has far to go and strength to build but once it does it will come to us hard and fast. I see shadows in the corner of my eye that grow longer every day and there's a stillness in the world that I have never felt before. You and I know it's been too long since we were all together and can feel the pull, we all feel the pull.'

'Elastic band theory, right? We all go so far we'll eventually just bounce back,' Tony chuckled, more to himself than anyone else, burying himself in his drink as Hawkeye's words ricocheted around his head.

'Tony.' The sharp use of his first name had him standing to attention, hand almost reaching for a sloppy salute. The next thing he knew Hawkeye was in front of him, snatching the glass from his hand, talking low, hushed, and urgent. 'Tony, they will come back because we all know that something is not right and hasn't been for a long time. Thor may be back in Asgard, Bruce roaming the mountains of Pakistan or Kygyzstan or whatever '-stan' he's ended up in and Cap on some Kerouac trip 'finding' himself, but they're all on their way back because they feel the pull.'

'And Romanoff?' Tony interrupted playfully.

'In her room, sleeping, after she got back last night,' Barton shot back, rolling his eyes as Tony pretended to be burned. 'She came back because she feels it too, Stark. Fury feels it – it's not just you and I. There's something out there, waiting for its moment to come. It will come, Tony. It's coming.'

A moment of tension was broken only by the unexpected 'ding' of the elevator opening and out walked, no, stumbled, an exhausted and dishevelled Bruce Banner. He made it several steps before his legs began to give out on him. Tony started forward to catch him before he fell but as always Barton was ahead of him, lowering Banner gently onto a nearby couch.

'I made it...I'm home,' he breathed in wonderment, his face pale and drawn, his eyes starting to close as they savoured his success before suddenly flying open, darting between Barton and Stark as he clutched Hawkeye's arm. 'The shadows, the shadows…it's coming…it's coming.' With that his eyes rolled back into his head and he lost his grip on consciousness. His words, ominously echoing Hawkeye's own hung in the air.

After a second Barton snapped to attention, pulling out his cellphone, 'Call a doctor' he ordered, pulling Tony out of his reverie, before dialling a number on his phone. He marched to the elevator and Tony could just make out his words before the doors of the lift closed, 'Director Fury? It's Barton. We have Banner.'

So that's it for my first fanfic! Hope you all enjoyed it - please read and review so that I know what's good, what's not, what's working and what isn't!

Thanks for reading so far!